Yeah I can understand that Custardo! It is very different, and worth checking out once you have had some time. :O)

Yep, I think it's a sign that the book will really stay with you. I finished 'Wolf Hall' a couple of weeks ago and have since heard a rumour that Hilary Mantel is writing a follow up. I am missing Thomas Cromwell and might actually read it again.

Hide & Seek is harrowing, but a good read nonetheless

I couldn't finish the Cutting Room, didn't like her style of writing

no i haven'[t reaqd the purple hebiscus, i really thought about it - but ....in the sam vein as this thread - i kinda don';t want to rea another book of hers for it to be pants! or for it to be the same its like "don't spoil it"

re: the cutting room - there is lots of description - but its just not vivid imagry despite that.

i finished my amy bloom book - mourned it for a xouple of days - i am going to try 'hide & seek' by clare sambrook - sounds a bit harrowing -i'll get the tissues ready.

i felt bereft when i finished the time travellers wife and the gargoyle....

im now ploughing through jasper fforde so ive a few to go at!

Yes, i just finished the Earths Children Series by Jean m. Auel for the tenth time or something, I miss Ayla and Jondalar so much right now. I've lost my copy of Shelters of Stone, and it's not very good anyway so I've finished at Plains of Passage, Iand I feel like part of me is missing, even though I've already immersed myself in The Kings Daughter by Arabella Weir....

oh no! i love the cutting room. what has gone wrong for you non likers?

try this dora damage

Aw, I'm the same. I miss the characters and wish that something else could happen in the book to string the story out a bit.

Just reading through the thread now, I get the dreams thing too, and the not being able to start a new book for a couple of days! (Though I find it almost impossible to sleep at night without having read a couple of chapters first, which is why I have to re-read the good one!)

I get this sense of loss with really good books, there are even a few I have finished and started again straightaway because I loved them so much. Few and far betweeen though aren't they, the utterly stunning ones?

Custardo, have you read Purple Hibiscus? Its really gorgeously written too!

whats it about, the crimson petal??

Lucyellen - Johnny Depp bought the film rights to Shantaram and not sure if it's in production or not. I LOVED that book - it is very absorbing and while hard to believe that some or all of it might be true it is a damn good yarn.

I am yearn for the feeling of picking up a particular book for the first time and becoming totally immersed in it. I feel sad when I put it down and know that no matter how long I wait to re-read it I won't get that initial hit of discovering it for the first time.

there are some books that I really don't want to finish but when I do, I feel like that. I usually read a really light, easy book as soon as poss - Pratchett or some such, even Agatha Christie. They allow me to ease out of it without really forcing intellectual/emotional engagement.

A couple of times I've had to race to get to the end to find out what happens, and then immediately re-read in a leisurely manner.

When I had time to read...

edam - loved the crimson petal and the white too! Did you know there were some follow up stories; called The Apple?

I do that with dreams too. Im kind of in that state today, although last nights dream was pretty disturbing and i'd rather not be.

Yes I have this feeling too. The same thing, interestingly, happens to me sometimes after wonderful dreams! I.e. both with dreams & good novels I feel completely immersed in the 'feeling' & atmosphere of the book (or the dream!) & find it hard & annoying to return to my real life.

With books I have to say this happens rarely, usually with very particular types of books (not necessarily with the best books, but certainly with the ones which have the most vivid / interesting characters). I can distinctly remember it happening with 'A prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving and also with 'Tully' by Paullina Simons.

I feel like this too, but only when I've really loved the book. The last one that got me like that was Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled (read it recently, not when it was published!).

ggirl, it was called SHANTARAM, by a guy called Gregory David Roberts. I think it was his first and only novel, an autobiography type thing (i dont usually do auto or biogs) but this one was pretty good if not a little self gratifying (if that is the right word). It was one of those, "i found inner peace in india" type novels, with a twist.

absolutely... i was heartbroken when the harry potters were all done and dusted!

TheFool - me too, that whole triology had me in another world for a fortnight! And I am not usually a sci-fi sort of gal at all. Was a dose of the flu and sheer desperation for something to read which led me to the Amber spyglass

I am utterly compelled to read. I chain read. Sometimes I have 2 concurrently; if I have lost one for a day or two, I'll start another

lucyellen-what was the great book?

I too feel like this,I recently read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and talked about it to anyone and everyone for days after I finished it.
You need someone to talk about it with.

The Cutting Room is indeed rubbish

I usually have 2 books on the go, one fiction & 1 non-fiction and have the next read already selected before I have finished

not that I'm obsessed or anything

yes me too. i finished half of a yellow sun and had to mourn the end of it

i bought another one called the cutting room - and its shit.

so i bought another one called 'away' by amy bloom - not even in the same league - but easy read for the train and now i am halfway through i need to know the ending - although i suspect i know it already.

i think great books ae just few and far between, i almost don't want the dissapointment of the next book to ruin it

I'll never forget finishing The Amber Spyglass. I had been so engrossed in their world for a few years, for it all to be over was a big wrench.

yes, sometimes you feel real sense of loss, like leaving a good friend you know you won't be seeing for a very long time.

Felt like that about (IIRC) The crimson petal and the white - the one where the heroine is called Sugar and is a prostitute in Victorian London.

I sometimes can't read another book for a few days after finishing a really interesting read. I need time to digest a good book.
I think it's the sign of a great book.

I've started reading the next book (in the loo normally) a bit before the end of the current book, so I am already slightly immersed in another book and it takes the bereft feeling away a bit.

Oooh yes, you wander round for a few days picking up books, reading the blurb, sometimes reading a page or two but then putting them back down sighing.

im with you there jeff, i have a few lined up, but i find it difficult when I have adjusted to a particular writing style.

I have been on a bit of a downer too since i finished last book, like that whole other world is closed to me now

I know, im just weird

Oh yes, I often feel like this. Sometimes I just can't start the next book for several days - so that I can let the effects of the last one wear off.

I just finished the Guernsey Literary book that was recommended on here. Loved it.

I feel like this too. Then I find myself casting around the recommendation threads on here and getting on amazon - I need to plan more.

I started a Margaret Atwood last night. I am worried I just don't get her.

I also feel like this, but the key is to have a good selection lined-up in advance. Then dive into a new one asap

Me too. At the end of a book I sometimes feel like I'm saying goodbye to a friend. Sniff sniff.

I have just finished a great book, although the end (as so often is) was a tad disappointing. It was a huge great wedge of a book too so took me ages. Now what do i do - i have some books to start but can't decide.

Does anyone else hate this literary limbo?